About Daniel Isenberg

Dan Isenberg (@danisen) is founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. From 1981-7 and 2005-9 Dan was a professor at the Harvard Business School, and in the interim (1987-2005) was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Israel. Dan authored Worthless Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value(Harvard Business Review Press 2013), published over 30 online and print articles on entrepreneurship in the Harvard Business Review, and has been featured in the Economist, Forbes, NPR, Bloomberg, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc. Dan has been a pioneer in the concept and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and he launched and directs Manizales-Mas and Scale Up Milwaukee. Between 2009-2013 Dan was active in the World Economic Forum and conducted Forum events in Davos, Africa, Europe, and China. In 2012 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Dan the Pio Manzu Award for "Innovations in Economic Development." At Babson Executive Education, Dan created and directs the 3-day program, Driving Economic Growth Through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems. He holds the Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University, received under the mentorship of Robert Freed Bales. He lives in Boston and in his home town of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and has 4 grown children. Dan enjoys salsa dancing (On2), jazz, collecting wine, and not-catching-fish (at which he excels); nevertheless, he is most excited about spending time with his kids (one of whom is an entrepreneur) and his granddaughter, helping his angel investments grow, and being continually surprised by what entrepreneurs around the world can accomplish. Dan is currently publishing two books of children's stories.